Vaporizer for gas-engines.



No. 642,562. Patented Jan. 30, I900. H. F. PROBERT.

4 VAPORIZER FOR GAS ENGINES.

(Application filed. Mar. 24, 1897.)

(No Model.) 3 2 Sheets-Sheet t.

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No. 642,562. Patented Ian. 30, I900.

, H.- F. P505251.

VAPORIZEB FUR vGAS ENGINES.

(Application. filed. Mar. 24, 1997.)

(No Model.) ,2 Sheets-Sheet 2.

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UNIT D STATES PATENT .OFFICE.

HUBERT F. PROBERT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

VAPORIZER FOR GAS-ENGINES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 642,562, dated January 30, 1900.

Application filed March 24, 1897.

T0 ctZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HUBERT F. PROBERT, a citizen of the United States, residing at Ohicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Gas-Engines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification.

My invention relates more particularly to that class of gas-engines which derive their explosive charge from a mixture of vapor and air arising through or passing in contact with a liquid combustible, such as gasolene or other explosive products of petroleum; and my invention has for its object to provide a compact, eficient, durable, and inexpensive con-. struction of gas-engine in which the escaping exhaust or products of the explosion may be utilized for heating the charge, and the engine may be run with either carbureted air or vaporized fuel or both, whereby the engine may be started by the carbureted air and subsequently run by charges generated through the influence of heat derived from the exhaust.

With these ends in view my invention consists in certain features of novelty in the construction, combination, and arrangement of parts by which the said objects and certain other objects hereinafter appearing are attained, all as fully described with reference to the accompanying drawings, and more particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the said drawings, Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view of my improved engine, partly in side elevation and partly broken away. Fig. 2 is an enlarged detail section of the combined retort vaporizer and carbureter hereinafter described, the section being taken on the line 2 2, Fig. 5. Fig. 3 is an enlarged detail plan view of the air valve or gate for admitting air to the mixing-chamber. Fig. 4 is a similar view of the combined air and relief valve for admitting air to the carbureter and vaporizer. Fig. 5 is an enlarged plan section taken on the line 5 5, Fig. 2; and Fig. 6 is a vertical section taken at right angles to the plane of the section in Fig. 1.

1 represents the engine-cylinder, mounted upon the upper end of a closed crank-chamher 2, which constitutes the mixing-chamber Serial No. 629,067. (No model.)

and in which the crank and crank-shaft 3 are located and journaled. The lower end of the cylinder 1 communicates directly with the crank-chamber 2, and at the intersection of the two parts is located an annular upturned flange 4,which constitutes an oil-channel in which the attenuated edge 5 of the piston 6 dips at each revolution of the shaft, thus becoming coated with a quantity of the oil or lubricant and distributing the same uniformly throughout the circumference and length of the cylinder at each stroke of the piston. This oil-channel may be supplied from the outer side by any suitable feed-cup 7, and in order that the journals of the shaft 3 may be automatically lubricated from the channel 4 the sides of the chamber 2 are provided with the vertical channels or grooves S, which continuously convey a small quantity of the oil downwardly to the point of bearing of the shaft, the grooves 8 catching the oil from the walls. By means of this method of lubricating the cylinder the pitman-pin 9 is also automatically lubricated by the oil which creeps upwardly on the inner .wall of the piston and spreads over the entire surface thereof and finds its way to the bearings of the pin 9. This upward trend of the oil on the inner wall .of the piston is due, it will be seen, to the fact that when the piston starts downwardly it will scoop up the lubricant on the walls of the cylinder and in p rapidly descending while such particles of lubricant tend to remain at rest will project itself below the lubricant and give the latter a relatively upward movement.

In one side of the cylinder is formed a supply-port 10, which is so disposed that when the piston has descended to the limit of its stroke such port will be uncovered and the charge entering therethrough will be diverted upwardly in the cylinder by a curved deflector 11, thus preventing the charge from rushing directly toward the exhaust-port 12, located on the opposite side and at a slightly-greater elevation. The deflector, on the contrary, causes the fresh charge to rise to the top of the cylinder and accelerate the expulsion of the products of combustion. The supplyport 10 is connected by a pipe 13 with the mixing-chamber 2, and such pipe is preferably provided with a cock or other throttle 14, whereby the speed of the engine may be governed at will.

Connected with the exhaust-port 12 is an exhaust-pipe which is shown extended in a downward direction and which for the sake of convenience in manufacture is composed of a number of sections 15, 16, and 17. The section 16 passes downwardly through achamber 18, which may be screw-threaded on each end of the section 16 as a convenient means of effecting the union and supporting the chamber 18. The section 17 is carried off to a chimney or other convenient place. The gasolene or other explosive used is admitted at the bottom of the chamber 18 through a pipe or passage 19, connected with the source of supply (not shown) and provided with a valve 20, whereby the flow may be regulated to a nicety, the side of the chamber 18 being provided with a gage 21 for indicating the level of the liquid in the chamber 18. Atm ospheric air is admitted to the lower portion of the chamber 18 through a pipe or passage 22, having a graduating-valve 23 located upon the end thereof which protrudes from the chamber 18, the valve being constituted by a disk having a series of perforations 24, which register with a series of perforations 25, formed in a screw-cap 26, which constitutes the valve-seat, the quantity of air admitted being determined by the number of perforations in register at one time. In order that the air admit-ted through the pipe 22 may be uniformly disseminated throughout the chamber 18 around the pipe 16 and caused to come into intimate relation to or contact with the gasolene or hydrocarbon at the bottom of the chamber 18, I locate in the latter an annular chamber 2?, which surrounds the exhaustpipe 16 and is provided in its lower side with a series of perforations 28, the lower side of the chamber being preferably constituted bya foraminous plate, wire screen, or other similar means. The annular chamber 27 being connected to the lower end of the pipe 22, which constitutes a convenient means for its support, it will be seen that the air admitted through the pipe 22 will be evenly distributed in the chamber 18 around the pipe 16 and will be discharged downwardly against the hydrocarbon or other explosive in the bottom of the chamber 18, the surface of the liquid explosive being preferably maintained substantially on a level with the perforated bottom 28. By this means the incoming air is carbureted and rises in the chamber 18, whence it escapes via outlet-pipe 29, which COII1111L1- nicates with the mixing-chamber 2, the pipe 29, if desired, being provided with a gagecock 30 and a check-valve 31, the latter being for the purpose of preventing back-pressure in the chamber 18 when the piston descends for forcing the charge into the upper end of the cylinder. For the sake of a more thorough mixing of the air and volatilized fuel, however, the upper end of the chamber 18 is provided with a diaphragm 32, which is also provided around its outer edge with an annular series of perforations 38, which admit the mixture to the space above the diaphragm 32, with which the outlet-pipe 29 comin unicates.

By means of my invention thus described it will be seen that the engine may be started and operated by the explosive mixture produced by the induction of atmospheric air through the pipe 22 and the volatile liquid admitted at the bottom of the chamber 18; but after a few revolutions of the engine the exhaust-pipe becomes sufficiently heated to evaporate substantially all of the liquid in the chamberlS, which, in conjunction with the heated pipesection 16, constitutes a retort, thus converting the liquid and air into a gas of more or less fixity and supplying the engine with heated charges, whereby is overcome the great objection to the use of gas or other explosive engines for marine purposes where the charge is chilled and more or less laden with moisture.

The mixture or gas in the retort-chamber 18 is ordinarily too rich to explode without the admixture of a further quantity of air, which may be introduced into the mixing chamber or crank-chamber 2 through the airvalve 34; but as a safeguard against danger from back-firing in the chamber 18, should the same occur through any cause, the valve 23 is held to its seat by yielding pressure only, constituted by a spring 35, arranged under the head 86 of a screw which passes loosely through the valve and engages in the cap 26.

The air-valve 34 closes an aperture 37 in the closed end of an elbow 38, between which latter and the mixing-chamber 2 is situated a check-valve 39, which admits the air to the chamber 2, but prevents the mixture in the chamber 2 from being ejected through the valve-opening 37.

It is of course obvious that my combined retort, vaporizer, and carbureter might be applied to an engine of any other type as well as to any other device requiring an explosive vapor or gas.

The features shown and described herein for lubricating the piston and applying lubricant to the crank-shat t and crank-pin are not claimed herein, inasmuch as the same constitute the subject-matter of the claims in my copending application.

Having thus described my invent-ion, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. An explosive-engine having in combination a cylinder, a piston, a generator for producing an explosive fluid having communication with said cylinder, an outwardly-yielding graduated air-valve for admitting air to said generator and means for heating said generator, substantially as set forth.

2. An explosive-gas engine having in combination an engine-cylinder having inlet and exhaust ports, a mixing-chamber in communication with the inlet-port, a two-part retort ICC the divisions of which are separated by the 7 perforated diaphragm 32, the pipe 16 passing through both parts of said retort and diaphragm and binding said parts together, the elbow connecting said pipe 16 with the exhaust-port of the engine,the annular air-chamber 27 having a closed upper side and a perforated lower side arranged in close propinquityto the bottom of said retort, the air-pipe 22 passing downwardlythrough both divisions of said retort and having its lower end communicating with said air-chamber and its upper end with the external atmosphere and the pipe 29 leading from the upper compartment of said retort and communicating with said mixing-chamber, substantially as set forth.

3. An explosive-gas engine having in combination a cylinder provided with an exhaustport, a piston, an exhaust-pipe connected with said exhaust-port, a mixing-chamber connected with said cylinderand having an air-induction port, aretort-chamber arranged contiguous to and heated by said exhaust-pipe and having an outlet at its upper end connected with said mixing-chamber, an inverted airspreading chamber located at the bottom of said retort and having an imperforate upper side arranged normally above the oil-level in said retort, but a perforated under side located normally below said oil-level, and a valved pipe extending from the external atmosphere to said air-chamber, and a gage on the retort extending from a point below toa point above said inverted air-chamber, whereby the level of the oil in the retort may be maintained below the top of the inverted airchamber, substantially as set forth.

HUBERT F. PROBERT.

Witnesses:

EDNA B. JOHNSON, F. A. HOPKINS. 

